considered to be the main Galician dialect, spoken in the Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblasts. Its distinguishing characteristics are the influence of Polish and the German vocabulary, which is reminiscent of the Austro-Hungarian rule.

spoken by the Lemko people, most of whose homeland rests outside the current political borders of Ukraine in the Prešov Region of Slovakia along the southern side of the Carpathian Mountains, and in the southeast of modern Poland, along the northern sides of the Carpathians.

spoken by the Rusyn people, who live in Transcarpathia around Uzhhorod. It is similar to the Lemko dialect but differs from them by the active use of Russian and Hungarian elements. There is an active movement to make this dialect a separate language distinct from Ukrainian.

the basis of the Standard Literary Ukrainian. It is spoken in the central part of Ukraine, primarily in the southern and eastern part of the Kiev Oblast). In addition, the dialects spoken in Cherkasy, Poltava and Kiev regions are considered to be close to "standard" Ukrainian.

Slobozhan

spoken in Kharkiv, Sumy, Luhansk, and the northern part of Donetsk, as well as in the Voronezh and Belgorod regions of Russia.[4] This dialect is formed from a gradual mixture of Russian and Ukrainian, with progressively more Russian in the northern and eastern parts of the region. Thus, there is no linguistic border between Russian and Ukrainian, and thus, both grammar sets can be applied. This dialect is considered a transitional dialect between Ukrainian and Russian.[5]

Steppe

is spoken in southern and southeastern Ukraine. This dialect was originally the main language of the Zaporozhian Cossacks.[6]

spoken in Chernihiv (excluding the southeastern districts), in the northern part of Sumy, and in the southeastern portion of the Kiev Oblast as well as in the adjacent areas of Russia, which include the southwestern part of the Bryansk Oblast (the area around Starodub), as well as in some areas in the Kursk, Voronezh and Belgorod Oblasts.[8] No linguistic border can be defined. The vocabulary approaches Russian as the language approaches the Russian Federation. Both Ukrainian and Russian grammar sets can be applied to this dialect. Thus, this dialect can be considered a transitional dialect between Ukrainian and Russian.[5]

spoken in the northern part of the Volyn Oblast, the northwestern part of the Rivne Oblast as well as in the adjacent districts of the Brest Voblast in Belarus. The dialect spoken in Belarus uses Belarusian grammar, and thus is considered by some to be a dialect of Belarusian.[10] To others it is a dialect of Polish.

spoken in the Kuban region of Russia, by the Kuban Cossacks. The Kuban Cossacks being descendants of the Zaporozhian Cossacks are beginning to consider themselves as a separate ethnic identity. Their dialect is based on Middle Dnieprian with the Ukrainian grammar. It includes dialectical words of central Ukrainian with frequent inclusion of Russian vocabulary, in particular for modern concepts and items. It varies somewhat from one area to another.[5]

Rusyn is considered by some Rusyn linguists and Rusyns to be a separate language:

Rusyn has only been recently considered a Slavic literary language,[11] and was codified only recently in Slovakia in 1995. Rusyn has been spoken for several hundred years by over 1100 Rusyn Villages in the Carpathian Mountains and surrounding areas. The Rusyn however varies from location to location and is influenced by the languages that are spoken nearby which can include Polish, Slovakian, Hungarian, Romanian and literary Ukrainian.

The Rusyn language is considered to be a dialect of Ukrainian by Ukrainian linguists:

Ukrainian is also spoken by a large émigré population, particularly in Canada, United States and several countries of South America like Argentina and Australia. The founders of this population primarily emigrated from Galicia, which used to be part of Austro-Hungary before World War I, and belonged to Poland between the World Wars. The language spoken by most of them is based on the Galician dialect of Ukrainian from the first half of the twentieth century. Compared with modern Ukrainian, the vocabulary of Ukrainians outside Ukraine reflects less influence of Russian, yet may contain Polish or German words. It often contains many loan words from the local language.

In recent times there have been attempts to categorise some of the Ukrainian dialects into separate languages. This has been happening primarily in the Carpathian regions of Ukraine, but also with the speakers of the Polissian dialect, the Kuban dialect and Rusyn. The debates as to independence of these dialects-languages has promoted inflamed discussions.